


Broken Hearts

by sparklight



Category: Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-21
Updated: 2015-07-21
Packaged: 2018-04-10 13:35:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 732
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4393892
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sparklight/pseuds/sparklight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Darth Sidious stands to the side as the droids work on his apprentice, and realises he has to intervene if he's to keep him alive.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Broken Hearts

**Author's Note:**

> A short exploration joining the idea of Palpatine draining Padmé to keep Anakin alive during surgery, and having Padmé dying of a broken heart.

You are losing him.

Admittedly, he was in a pretty sorry state when you finally got there, but this is still incomprehensible. The best medical droids are on hand to reforge your broken weapon into its new shape after exacting specifications, and he shouldn't be slipping away. This is _intolerable_. You aren't about to just let go, having spent this much time and effort to create your weapon - as deadly as any lightsaber - as you have.

You stare at the brightly lit center of the otherwise dark room, listening to but not hearing the insensate, half-choked screams that wander in and out with your apprentice's awareness. You don't care. What you care about is that there's less and less of him to _feel_ the droids tearing into him, cleaning up what needs to be cleaned to repair and refit what's needed to be for your weapon to be as you've envisioned it.

You care about the flagging presence insofar as it's not being lost to pain-numbed unconsciousness; it's being lost to _death_.

This will not do.

You slide closer to the circle of hot, angry white light, stop at the edge, and reach out.

The droids move around you, work around the obstacle of your arm and the single, feather-light touch of your finger on what's left of a charred-black arm.

You don't need more to see it, see the connection, see the _sympathetic death_ happening.

The bond is bright and deep, a bottomless river as large as an ocean, the universe itself. And all of it is aimed _away_ from the man on the slab. You'd be disgusted, but you suppose you should've expected this. All that power and emotion aimed _towards_ the other end of the connection, pouring into a hole which cannot be filled. 

She is dying. 

Unfortunately not from injuries inflicted upon her by your apprentice, as would only be proper when she revealed she would not be able to sublimate her existence underneath that of your soon-to-be weapon. No, she's dying of the same affliction whispering through your apprentice's heart, and now you can see it for what it is.

Love torn asunder, love betrayed, love held so close as to be choking.

A _broken heart_.

On some level you acknowledge the mystery of the connection, the emotion, the _affliction_. On some level you bow to the incomprehensible reality that in this day and age there are still things modern medical science does not understand and can't alleviate, even less _pre-empt_. One of those things being the improbable state of such emotions and bonds affecting the physical state of the heart.

Well.

No matter.

You are not about to lose your apprentice, your soon-to-be-weapon, and while he should definitely be weighed down by emotions to draw from, this is not one of them.

The curious, perhaps amazing, thing, is that if you do nothing, the struggling husk screaming on the slab will die, and she will live. Such is the power of the one born from the Force to a woman only, even when he's almost dead himself.

This will not do.

For the first time since you touched him, you do not just reach out; you follow the connection through to its other end, and while there are some... curious fluctuations around her, you are focused on other things. You pause for a brief, brief moment to take in the view of this woman, this nova of a human being who have been an adversary and an accomplice both.

You see, and do not care for her.

It doesn't take much to reverse the flow of energy; your apprentice can't fight you, isn't even aware of the need to fight. You don't really need to do more than that, but it's not enough for you. So you don't just reverse the flow, you pull in _her_ energy as well.

It is bright and deep and as you follow the flow back to your apprentice and your body, you can feel her struggling heart work all the harder, bereft not just of the dwindling connection, but its own energy as well, trying to live despite the flaws and you know she will not.

You do not laugh as you step away back into the shadows to allow the droids the room they need, but you smile.

It echoes around you in the darkness, and your weapon screams.


End file.
